Figure 1. Key candidate molecules activated by IGFBP-3.
IGFBP-3 can activate various downstream signaling molecules either by binding to its putative IGFBP-3R (receptor) to monitor its signal and induce apoptosis or bind to TGF-β receptor resulting in smad activation which leads to apoptosis. IGFBP-3 can also activate Stat-1 or bind to RXR-α to induce its anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects.